Illustration by Karan Singh
As the creator and administrator of a popular crewmember-focused social media hub, Diego Mariscal had a bird’s-eye view into the turbulent experience of his peers during Hollywood’s 2023 strikes. Typically, his account, Crew Stories, supplies its more than 128,000 followers across Instagram and Facebook with wry insider jokes about the below-the-line experience and lighthearted, behind-the-scenes stories like a boom operator on 1990’s Tremors recalling wiring up Reba McEntire — not knowing she was a major singer — and telling her she had a good voice, or a recent meme about an assistant director explaining their complicated job to in-laws during the holidays. “But there was very little of that in the last six months,” says Mariscal. “It was very serious.”
During the work stoppages, Mariscal — a dolly grip,…
